Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Another awesome week! (I'm sorry to those who are bored of me saying that, but its true)

Wednesday, the baptism of the Perez family that was supposed to happen on Saturday looked like... it might not happen. One parent was super solid and ready to be baptized, the other felt rushed and unsure. We told them to pray very hard about it, the next day, Thursday, with only 2 more days to go, they still weren't sure about it. That's when their 8 year old son came in and saved it. He told us he had prayed and asked God if he should be baptized like we told him to, and he said he got an answer of yes. We asked him to describe what the answer felt like and he said "It felt like there was a person walking inside of me, and then they stopped at just the right place, and said yes." Well, that cleared up any doubt felt by the parent, and all 3 of them got baptized on Saturday! The baptism itself went really well, not redos or anything. On Sunday, the Perez family, Estefania, and Mariano all got confirmed. It was cool for me to be able to confirm Mariano and the Perez son, and watch 5 new members be welcomed into the church in one Sunday.

The Perez family is a really special family Both the parents grew up in not the best circumstances, and they decided that their kids were not going to go through what they went through. Because of their focus on their family, they accepted the Gospel really fast, because the Gospel is for our Families, and teaches them how to be the best Families they can be. The Perez's saw that, and now they're on the path to having an eternal family.

Friday was also a sweet day. We started out teaching the an awesome Plan of of Salvation lesson to our investigator Emelia, and she committed to be baptized on the 15th of September. Right after that we went to another investigators house, with 7 missionaries total, and cleaned her house. She had 6 kids, from ages 11 to 2, living in a small 2 bedroom apartment. A lot of cleaning was scrubbing crayon off the walls. We brought a member with us so that while we cleaned, the member could talk to the investigator and fellowship.

Well, today was transfer calls, and Elder Cram and I are going to be together for the next 6 weeks. I'm excited for this transfer. :)

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

This week wasn't quite as intense and full of people accepting baptismal dates, but it was still awesome. We only had 1 investigator come to church, mainly because 2 of the families that came last week couldn't come this week, but the one that came got baptized after church, so it was ok. Estefania was baptized by her dad, which was a really awesome experience for their family, especially since the parents haven't be able to come to church a whole lot because of work.

The baptism that are happening this Saturday and next Saturday, the 25th of August and the 1st of September, are definitely happening. Both the baptisms are families of 3, and we're pretty excited. After those 2 weekends, its pretty much all up in the air, but I know we'll find people.

We had a cool experience finding a less active we didn't know about. We were walking toward the house of another less active, and then this little 6 year old kid one house over runs to us all excitedly and tells us, in Spanish, that we should knock on his door. He was like super excited and jumping up and down and stuff, but I think that mainly has to do with him be a little kid with too much energy. Well, if a little kid runs up to you and tells you in Spanish to knock on his door, you should probably do it. We ended up not even having to knock on the door, he just ran inside and got his mom. Well, she came out, we said who we were, and she said "I know, I'm a less active member." It turns out she hadn't gone to church in 4 years, so that 6 year old either must have remembered the missionaries from when he was 2, or or it was a miracle. Either way, I think it was miracle. We told the Branch President, and he knew about her, they just didn't know where she went. One thing I've learned is if you're a less active member, you can't hide for too long, because the missionaries will find you. The Lord always provides a way.

This week, Elder Cram also taught his very first complete lesson with a British accent. Not to be discriminatory, but white people just aren't as humble as Hispanic people, so it's really hard to find some that will listen. But Elder Cram figured out they'll listen just a little bit more if you talk to them with a British accent, because who doesn't want to talk to a guy with a British accent. We were trying to see another less active, but ended up talking to her son and his girlfriend. At first, the Girlfriend wasn't interested, but the more Elder Cram talked in a British accent, the softer her heart grew. We went back, and Elder Cram kept the British accent for the entire lesson. It was pretty awesome. He can also talk in Spanish with a British accent pretty well too, but he doesn't really need to use it to get Hispanics to listen.

On Saturday, we went to an appointment in a trailer park, which ended up not being there, and then we were walking down the street, and saw other church people form a baptist church, 4 of them. Well, we tried to see other people that we had talked to before, but we decided the addition of the us and baptists on the same street scared people, so we decided to split. On the way to our car, we saw a more of them, and all these were kids, like 10-15 year olds, out knocking doors. There was about 7 or 8 kids, and 2 more adults! They had that trailer park flooded, all of them verses the 2 of us. We left, but before we managed to do that, 2 kids handed us little pamphlets for the church.

Well, there you have it, another fun week will filled with fun and adventure.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Well, I have some bad news, I had to play the piano at another baptism, so the music was terrible. But the whole rest of this letter is all fantastic news. None of you are goingg to believe what happened this week!

The baptism I played at was Mariano's, and everything but the music went super well. I love that man so much. Even though he has Alzheimer's, and probably doesn't know our names, he is still awesome.

So the amazingness of this week started last Sunday. The Stake President was at our building, and joined us for our missionary meeting before church. We all talked and discussed what was happening, and then he says pretty much out of nowhere, "What do we need to do to have a baptism every week?" We all sat there like, "uhhh" and started saying things like "talk to everybody" or "work with the members." He waited quietly for a few seconds, then told us if we had 10 investigators at church every Sunday, we would have a baptism every week. Well, at first, I thought. "Yeah, 10 investigators at church, thats not happening anytime soon." Then we talked about it with the other pair of missionaries in our branch, and we figured we each only need to bring 5 to church, and then we'll have 10 together. But it still seemed to me a couple months away. But I was so wrong. I testify that modern day revelation exists, and what our Stake President said was revelation from God. What he said happened. We had 10 people at church, and a baptism scheduled for 6 weeks in a row, starting yesterday with Mariano. Now, I'm not trying to brag or say the other missionaries aren't good missionaries, but all 10 of those people at Church, 9 that have baptismal dates, and the 6 weeks of baptism's are all Elder Cram's and mine. Well, actually, they're the Lord's, he just put them all in our path.

Tuesday, we taught Estefonia. She's the daughter of parents who were baptized about a year ago, but she was out of the country when they got baptized, and for some reason, she never did. Well, we had an awesome lesson with her, and talked about how baptism was the door to get onto the path that leads to Eternal Life. We then asked her when she wanted to open that door, and she said as soon as possible. As soon as possible is this coming Sunday.

Wednesday, we had a lesson with a former, Jasmin. We were super bold, and committed her and her 2 kids to be baptized on the 2nd of September.

Thursday, we gave a date to 2 people, one for the 9th, and the other for the 16th.

Saturday, had another amazing lesson with a family Jesse and Crystal. They were the ones who were struggling and a member arranged a food order for them.; Well, It turns out Jesse had wanted to quite smoking for a long time, and he committed him to be baptized is was a big motivation to quit. They also talked about how they were only married in a court before, and they wanted a bigger wedding for their 10th anniversary. Well, their 10th anniversary is in about a year, about when they could get sealed in the temple. We didn't have any body with a date for the 25th of August, so thats they're going to get baptized.

Last week, I talked about they man who was almost baptized in Mexico 9 years ago. Well, his chance to be baptized has come again, and its on the 16th of September.

We also taught so many lessons this week. Its almost like everybody we've talked to has let us teach them at least once. The Lord is really blessing us with success. There is atleast a couple of reasons for that. This month, we're donig a month of consecration, meaning were trying to be the absolute best missionaries possible, dedicating our heart to the Lord and his work by being more obedient and working even harder. It also fullfills the prophecy about how we're gonig to see hundreds of baptisms a month in our mission. Baptizing nations!!

I don't know if all the people that came to church or have dates will end up being baptized, but I do know that the Lord has chosen to bless us right now, even though I feel unworthy of such blessings. I love the Lord and his work.

So we've been tracting up a strom this week. Literally, we were tracting, and then the Heaven's opened and the clouds unleashed their massive storage of water upon us and the earth around us. Luckily we were already in the car. But seriously, it rained like I had never seen it. We were driving at 20 mph, and we could barley see the road. Usually Georgia rain like that only lasts for 10-15 minutes, while this time it lasted for 40 minutes, the whole way home. I'm go to miss the awesome rain and lightning storms we have here.

So 9 years ago, a young man was learning about the Gospel in Mexico. He had attended church for over a year, and had gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. Sadly, 2 weeks before he got baptized, his friend told him they were leaving for the United States. For 9 years, this man had lived in the United States without contact from anybody in the church, not even knowing where the church was. Without contact, that is, until a pair of English missionaries saw his leg sticking out of his car a decided to talk to him. They passed him to us, and he came to church for the first time yesterday in 9 years. Yeah, it was awesome, after 9 years of waiting, he is now close again to being baptized, if he finds the time to let us come over (which is the biggest problem with all Hispanics).

Mariona should be getting baptized this coming Sunday, the 12th. Whoo!!

This week, Elder Cram used his Rubix cube solving ability to get a return appoint with somebody. If they're not interested, impress them! I'm just kidding, its not a good way at all, but it worked once.

Now y'al should go out and rock the world. Can you do that for me? Thanks